阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.

    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

    Even so, travel isn't difficult. The waterways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can guide you where you want to go.  People in Venice move from place to place by boat.

    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange experiences. One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there's nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.

    Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean (北冰洋) melt (融化). Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.

    Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy's biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be build under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.

    Since English biologist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, scientists have vastly improved their knowledge of natural history. However, a lot of information is still of the speculation, and scientists can still only make educated guesses at certain things.

    One subject that they guess about is why some 400 million years ago, animals in the sea developed limbs (肢) that allowed them to move onto and live on land.

    Recently, an idea that occurred to the US paleontologist (古生物学家) Alfred Romer a century ago became a hot topic once again.

    Romer thought that tidal (潮汐的) pools might have led to fish gaining limbs. Sea animals would have been forced into these pools by strong tides. Then, they would have been made either to adapt to their new environment close to land or die. The fittest among them grew to accomplish the transition (过渡) from sea to land.

    Romer called these earliest four-footed animals “tetrapods”. Science has always thought that this was a credible theory, but only recently has there been strong enough evidence to support it.

    Hannah Byrne is an oceanographer (海洋学家) at Uppsala University in Sweden. She announced at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Oregon, US, that by using computer software, her team had managed to link Homer's theory to places where fossil deposits (沉积物) of the earliest tetrapods were found.

    According to the magazine Science, in 2014, Steven Balbus, a scientist at the University of Oxford in the UK, calculated that 400 million years ago, when the move from land to sea was achieved, tides were stronger than they are today. This is because the planet was 10 percent closer to the moon than it is now.

    The creatures stranded in the pools would have been under the pressure of “survival of the fittest”, explained Mattias Green, an ocean scientist at the UK's University of Bangor. As he told Science, “After a few days in these pools, you become food or you run out of food... the fish that had large limbs had an advantage because they could flip (翻转) themselves back in the water.”

    As is often the case, however, there are others who find the theory less convincing. Cambridge University's paleontologist Jennifer Clark, speaking to Nature magazine, seemed unconvinced. “It's only one of many ideas for the origin of land-based tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer,” she said.

    What do the world's most successful people all have in common?

By examining the work habits of over 150 greatest writers and artists and scientists, the researchers including Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeiffer found that high achievers like Robert Moses turned out to be all alike:

Busy! Busy!

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} In a study of general managers in industry, John Kotter reports that many of them work 60 to 65 hours per week—which translates into at least six 10-hour days. The ability and willingness to work difficult and tiring hours has characterized many powerful figures. Energy and strength provide many advantages to those seeking to build power.

Just Say No!

    The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say "no" to almost everything. And that's what gives them the time to accomplish so much. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} And focus means saying "no" to a lot of distractions (分神).

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Ignore your weaknesses and keep improving your strengths. Don't waste time exploring skill areas where you have little competence. Instead, focus on—and build on—your strengths. This means knowing who you are, what you are and what you are good at.

    Create Good Luck！

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} There's a science to it. Richard Wiseman studies lucky people for his book Luck Factor, and breaks down what they do right. Certain personality types are luckier because they behave in a way that offers the chance for good opportunities. By being more outgoing, open to new ideas, following the feeling that something is true, and being optimistic, lucky people create possibilities.

    Does applying these principles to your life actually work? Wiseman created a "luck school" to test the ideas—and it was a success. In total, 80 percent of the people who attended Luck School said that their luck had increaseD.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Spend enough time to improve your weakness.

B. Achievement requires focus.

C. On average, these people reported that their luck had increased by more than 40 percent.

D. They never stop working and they never lose a minute.

E. Busy people are more likely to be lucky.

F. Know What You Are!

G. Luck isn't magical.

    Are you having trouble concentrating when you're reading a book or listening to a lecture? This list of activities might help to improve your study habits.

    Make a List. We often have trouble paying attention to one thing because our brain wants to think about something else. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} You don't worry about whatever else you should be doing.

    Sleep More. Studies show that people who sleep fewer than eight hours a night for a period of time have slower response systems and more difficulty recalling information. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Eat Healthier Foods. Many people enjoy foods high in fats and sugars. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They might give you a temporary burst of energy. However, that energy is soon followed by a crash.

Reduce Screen Time. This may be the most unpopular suggestion among young people. Screen time — or time spent looking at cell phones, televisions, computer screens, has a clear effect on the attention span. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Concentration improves for students who participate in team sports. It could be that being active is helpful in this way. Participating in a sport trains your brain to concentrate on specific tasks, and shut out other thoughts.

A. Be active.

B. Practice more.

C. These foods can provide enough energy for focusing.

D. But these foods can't be helpful enough when it comes to focusing.

E. That is bad news for teens who stay up studying the night before a test.

F. Researchers advise parents to limit it when their children need to be focused.

G. By writing down all the things you need to do, you'll gain a sense of control.

Training the Brain

    People who can accomplish unbelievable tasks, such as memorizing thousands of random numbers in under an hour, state that they just have normal brains. Some memory superstars compete in Olympic-like World Memory Championships. These mental athletes, or MAs for short, can memorize names of dozens of strangers in a few minutes or any poem handed them. Ed Cooke, a 24-year-old MA, explains they see themselves as participants rescuing the long-lost art of memory training. These techniques existed not to recall useless information, but to cut into the brain basic text and ideas.

    A study in the journal Nature examined eight people who finished near the top of the World Memory Championships. The scientists examined whether their brains were fundamentally different from everyone else's or whether they were simply making better use of memorizing abilities we all possess. They put the MAs and control subjects into brain scanners and had them memorize numbers and photographs. The result surprised everyone. The brains of the MAs and those of the control subjects were indistinguishable. On every test, the MAs scored in the normal range. However, when the scientists examined what part of the brain was used during a memory activity, they found the MAs relied more heavily on areas in the brain involved in spatial memory.

    MAs offer an explanation: anything can be fixed upon our memories and kept in order by constructing a building in the imagination and filling it with pictures of what needs to be recalled. Dating back to the fifth century, the building is called a memory palace. Even as late as the fourteenth century, when there were copies of any text, scholars needed to remember what was read to them. Reading to remember requires a different technique than speed reading. If something is made memorable, it has to be repeated. Until relatively recently, people read only a few books intensively (细致地) again and again, usually aloud. Today we read extensively, usually only once and without continuous focus.

    So the great difference is the ability to create impressive pictures in mind and to do it quickly. Using memory palaces, MAs create memorized pictures. For example, recombine the pictures to form unforgettable scenes such as the ways through a town. One competitor used his own body parts to help him memorize a 57,000-word dictionary.

    Anyone who wishes to train the mind needs first to create fantastical palaces in the imagination. Then they should cut each building into cubbyholes for memories. In a short amount of time, they will notice improvement with remembering things. To keep the skill sharp, MAs deliberately empty their palaces after competitions, so they can reuse them and they recommend that beginners do the same.

What do a picturesque sunrise, a nice cup of coffee, and holiday celebrations have in common? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Being open about your feelings can be rewarding. Here are some reasons for sharing your feelings with others.

Expressing your feelings connects you with others. When it comes to relationships with your family and significant others knowing how to express your feelings is the key to creating intimacy (亲密关系). {#blank#}2{#/blank#}However, it is that sincere revelation(透露) that enables you to bond with your loved ones.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}In a study, after participants expressed their emotions, brain images showed a decrease in the brain activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with feelings, indicating a calming effect on the brain. The researchers concluded that talking through emotions decreases the strength of these emotions.

Sharing your feelings boosts health. According to The New York Times, holding everything inside and not expressing your emotions can be harmful. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}But choosing to appropriately share them benefits you mentally and physically. By doing so, you can normalize your speaking about emotions and emotional needs. This can help not just you, but also others.

Speaking about your emotions enables you to get help.When you put what's in your mind into words, you are making that experience or emotion real, instead of ignoring it. That's a way of recognizing yourself. Moreover, talking about your feelings allows your loved ones to help you. They are naturally concerned about your well-being. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

All in all, accept your feelings, even negative ones and learn to manage them. Practice sharing your feelings on a regular basis, and you will benefit a lot.

A. Opening up keeps emotional intensity down.

B. Sharing your emotions improves brain function.

C. Telling others about the depths of your feelings can be scary.

D. If so, you'd better avoid judging yourself and other people.

E. These are all wonderful experiences that you can share with loved ones.

F. By letting them know what you're experiencing, you can get their support.

G. That may cause increased stress levels and risk of developing related diseases.